BJP: Lost in transition

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold. What W.B. Yeats wrote more than 90 years ago quite appropriately sums up the crisis that has engulfed the BJP where nothing ever goes the way of intended consequence.

BJP tried to put up a brave front at the Patna rally

The meeting of the party's National Executive at Patna last week was aimed to show that the JD(U)-BJP alliance that has been in power for nearly five years in the state remains strong as ever. It ended up pushing the two allies to the edge of disaster.

The Patna meet was the first under the presidentship of Nitin Gadkari and expectations were high. The venue had been chosen with great care in view of assembly elections in the state, four months from now.

The two-day meeting over the weekend was to culminate in a huge joint rally with the JD(U) that was supposed to send electoral shivers down the spines of opponents ranging from Lalu Prasad Yadav to Ram Vilas Paswan and the Congress. But Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, famous for flaunting his secular credentials even as he stays in power in alliance with the BJP, refused to attend the rally, cancelled a dinner he was to host for the visitors and took objection to BJP posters that showed him in the company of his Gujarat counterpart Narendra Modi.

All because he wants his share of the minority vote. Nothing went according to the script and instead of strengthening the alliance, the National Executive members left Patna with the alliance on the brink of a divorce. "The party members are not behaving like seasoned politicians but like political greenhorns,'' said a senior party leader.

It is almost comical the way things are happening in the BJP. Nobody seems to be in control. Narendra Modi seized the National Executive as an opportunity to cock a snook at Nitish, who has kept him out of the state ever since he became chief minister.

Gadkari took over as president late last year and nearly seven months after he appointed party office-bearers, work still hasn't been allotted to them. The BJP is hopping from one crisis to another.

The members in-charge of various states have not been named. Unrest is growing among National Executive members as they have been told that party General Secretary Ananth Kumar is "working on the work allocation". Kumar says that the allocation is being decided by "senior leaders" and not by him.

Fingers are also being pointed at Kumar for being a divisive force in the party and some members claim that he has become "too big for his boots". Known for his earlier proximity to party patriarch L.K. Advani, Kumar had not hesitated in going against him when the chief of Delhi BJP unit was being decided.

Kumar had put his might behind Vijay Goel while Advani was not in his favour. Ultimately, a compromise candidate was found in Vijender Gupta. A hurt Advani retreated and stopped talking to Kumar. According to party sources, Jaitley stepped in and had a talk with Kumar. Relations between Advani and him remain strained, however.

The party is hoping to revive some of its fortunes by bringing back senior leader Jaswant Singh and the fiery Uma Bharati. Jaswant, the MP from Darjeeling, was expelled nine months ago from the BJP for writing a book praising Pakistan founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

After Gadkari visited him twice and Advani personally requested him to come back to the party, all formalities for his return are said to have been completed. But Bharati's return to the coop is turning out to be more contentious with groups bent on stalling it.

Wilting Lotus:

Nothing is going right for the BJP; its downhill slide gathers momentum

The BJP has managed to rile ally Nitish Kumar barely four months before Bihar elections

Party President Nitin Gadkari is dilly-dallying over allocating work to national office-bearers

Gadkari seen as weak as he is allowing Ananth Kumar to influence crucial decisions in the party

Inner strife continues over decision to get rebellious leader Uma Bharati and Jaswant Singh back into the party

With Gadkari failing to acquire a national stature, the party is struggling to project a leader for future as Narendra Modi remains largely unacceptable

Her reinduction into the BJP has been on the anvil ever since she wound up her Bharatiya Janashakti Party in March. But a powerful lobby comprising senior leaders Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Kumar and Venkaiah Naidu are dead set against it.

Even Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has strongly opposed the move. Bharati's open rebellion after Chouhan was appointed chief minister was the final straw, which led to her expulsion. However, the pressure from the rss to take her back has been unrelenting.

The party is trying to find a way to make best use of her oratorial skills to strengthen its position in Uttar Pradesh. "She has the ability to pull in crowds. She is a mass leader. The party doesn't have many like her,'' admitted a party leader.

Gadkari, the "outsider" handpicked by the rss to breathe life into the BJP, has discovered that he presides over a party that specialises in fratricide.

The BJP's ability to spring back as a credible opposition vests largely on the profile and the ability of its leader to lead from the front. Gadkari is yet to show he is worthy of the captain's armband. Diehard BJP loyalists can only hope that he will grow up on the job.

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